T&T Women to play for Bronze against Venezuela

Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Women footballers missed out on a chance of gold medal but will have an opportunity of securing the bronze tomorrow when they face Venezuela following their 2-0 defeat to Costa Rica in the semi finals of the CAC Games in Barranquilla on Friday night.

T&T’s women gave a creditable performance and may have found themselves to be somewhat unfortunate in the encounter after falling behind to a dubious penalty call in the 32nd minute. Mexican referee Maria Gonzales ruled that Jenelle Cunningham tripped Gloriana Villalobos on her way to goal. Carol Sanchez put away the resulting penalty and Maria Porras punished T&T for a defensive mistake in added on time.

T&T had their fair moments on goal with Tasha St Louis missing a glorious opportunity to level the scores in the 78th minute when she ran on a to flick on header by Karyn Forbes, got past Sanches but sent her effort wide, hitting turn and ball on the attempt.

Mexico overcame Venezuela 3-1 in the other semi final match and will meet Costa Rica in the final with T&T taking on their neighbours from 5pm TT time.

“Not the result we were hoping for but far from a disappointing performance,” head coach Shabazz told TTFA Media. “I think our players demonstrated a desire and displayed a courage that is encouraging as we look ahead to the remainder of the CONCACAF qualifier and potential matches against the likes of Costa Rica and Mexico. Of course it was not a good feeling to come away with the loss but we took away some positives.

“We’ll regroup and give it our everything in an attempt to secure the bronze medal against Venezuela. Of more importance for us at this stage is having the opportunity to have two top matches which will serve us well in preparation for the qualifiers next month,” Shabazz added.

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association was formed on July 23rd, 1908. Expatriate workers who taught the game to locals played the game in the oilfields.

A certain player by the name of Dwight Yorke captained this country to its first ever FIFA World Cup, the 1991 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Portugal. And in 2006 he also captained the Senior Men's Team to the 2006 World Cup in Germany